The Garden Diary 2008

April (part 2)

21 April - After the last entry we
have had pretty miserable, cold weather, made worst by a strong
north-easterly breeze. Yesterday the wind dropped and in the afternoon we
had bright sunshine and it became relatively warm, reaching 15C. I needed to
take advantage of the improved weather to do a bit of woodwork, so I
couldn't take any photographs, but I did see my second butterfly of the
year, a Holly Blue this time. There were also plenty of bumblebees about,
and several solitary bees were approaching the bee hotels. While I worked
outside, a large (presumably a queen) wasp sunbathed on the bamboo plant
near me, and later I had to 'help' one out of my shed.

Last night the temperature didn't fall below
8C and with the cold breeze no longer affecting us today it was back up to
15C despite grey skies all day. This was the nearest we got to sunshine this
afternoon, with a bright patch in the cloud throwing the birch tree into
silhouette.

The male catkins are now well developed, and
I noticed a small cloud of pollen when a Wood Pigeon brushed against a
branch as it headed into the Ivy tree in search of berries.

It's a nice comparison with the Rowan which
is concentrating on developing its leaves before the flowers appear.

Having heard reports about Hawthorns being in
bloom I shall have to watch ours carefully over the days to come. Last year
the first flowers had opened on 20 April.

Down nearer ground level we have our first
Red Campion flower. A solitary pink blossom at the moment, but judging by
the amount of foliage that has appeared over the last month there will be an
awful lot more over the months to come.

Last year, one Red Campion flower came into
bloom on 28 March

In my last entry I mentioned the appearance
of a single Stitchwort flower. That has now faded and has not yet been
replaced.

22 April - Typical of our weather at
the moment - after yesterday's greyness today it has been sunny and warm,
with a high of over 17C this afternoon, and coffee down the West Wing!

I thought that I should include a picture of
the garden to show how green it is, and before the rest of the Red Campions
start to flower.

The sunshine brought out the solitary bees,
with numerous of them around the bee hotels and landing on the bamboos and
other places to sunbathe.

I caught a brief glimpse of my first solitary
wasp of the year

It also encouraged more butterflies to make
an appearance, three today, of three different species.

The first to appear was this Peacock,

followed soon afterwards by this Small White,
which spent ages on this Dandelion.

It only had one feint spot, indicating that
is is a male.

The third butterfly didn't stop in the
garden, but the bright yellow upper-sides of its wings meant that it
was a male Brimstone.

The same dandelion that provided food for the
Small White also played host to this less attractive fly with a large, and
almost white 'face' and a small, quite delicate proboscis.

Thanks to
Philippe Moniotte
of Belgium (someone who has helped me with ID's on many occasions) for
identifying it as a conopid fly of the genus
Mypoa, and is probably M.
tesselatinennis.

While the adults feed on nectar, flies of
this genus spend much of their time waiting on twigs while they hunt for bee
or wasp hosts for their endoparasitic (internal) larvae.

23 April - Yesterday's sunshine turned
into quite heavy rain during the night, with a damp start to this morning,
although by lunchtime we were getting some sunny periods with the
possibility of a pleasant afternoon.

While
it was still grey and very dull we had a visit from this male Greater
Spotted Woodpecker.

It spent a while pecking at the peanuts,
mostly on the hidden side of the feeder before heading off to a mature Rowan
a couple of gardens away and then an apple tree before heading back towards
the Brickfields Country Park.

Over the last two days I've seen mating
taking place between pairs of House Sparrows (on four occasions) the Robins
and the Blackbirds (are they starting another brood? - I shall have to watch
out for nest building activity again).

Afternoon
sunshine brought out even more solitary bees today, as well as numerous
bumblebees. I've noticed a dark bumblebee visiting the Lungwort flowers
several times over the last few days. I has been moving about very quickly
and it has been difficult to get very close. I managed to get a couple
of photographs which give me a clue as to its identity.

In this first picture you can just make out
that while the rest of its body is black, it has an orange tip to its
abdomen.

In this second photograph that isn't visible,
but I was lucky enough to catch one of its forewings against a light
background.

The vein pattern, along with the orange tip
to the abdomen suggest that it is possibly Bombus lapidarius
(Red-tailed Bumblebee).

As an indication of its size, the flowers
measure around 15mm across when fully open. It would seen that it is too
small to be a queen (length 22mm wingspan 38mm). Workers can be this size or
smaller, but my Bumblebees guide says that these appear from early to
mid-May, so it is still a bit early to be seeing these. I shall have to try
and get some more photographs to be sure of the ID.

Also seen this afternoon was a Bee-fly,
possibly Bombylius major. At first glance it looked very like the
solitary bees - similar colouring but plumper. However, the difference was
obvious when it approached a group of Forget-me-nots and hovered as it fed
through its long, straight proboscis.

And I've 'spotted' my first native ladybird
of the year. After coming across two Harlequin Ladybirds during the morning,
this afternoon I found a four-spot melanic form of a Two-spot Ladybird when
I shook a branch of the Hawthorn in the hope of finding barkflies (none
found). I will add a photograph tomorrow.

24 April - An April showers sort of
day, with blue skies which turned dark quickly as we were hit by mixtures of
rain, hail and some Thunder and lightning.

I've taken no pictures today, but I have
sorted out the ladybird photographs from yesterday.

First, the two Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia
axyridis), both
measuring some 7mm long. This pair
have similar spot patterns, if much broader in the lower example, and there
is also a slight variation on the white patterns on the pronotum (the area
of the thorax behind the head).

When they feel threatened ladybirds can make
use of a process called reflex bleeding by which they release a foul-tasting
(so I'm told!) liquid. This blood is exuded from the joints of the legs.

From what I've seen, Harlequins seem to do
this much more readily than the native species I see in the garden, and you can
clearly see the yellow liquid at the side of the pronotum.

If you live in the UK and find these aliens
in your garden for the first time this year it would be a good idea to visit
the Harlequin
Ladybird Survey website to confirm your discovery and to report it,
especially if you live away from the south-east of England where the species has
already established itself, unfortunately.

Here is the the much more welcome 2-Spot
Ladybird that I found in the Hawthorn - actually the four-spotted
melanic form of it

At just over 5mm in length it is much smaller
than the Harlequins, which were about 7mm long. Also, it has completely
black underside and legs. A Harlequin's underside is reddish and it has
brown legs.

26 April - It has been like summer,
with the warmest day so far this year, and the first Swifts have been flying
overhead. With somewhat hazy sunshine, and a south-westerly breeze for much
of the day, the temperature almost made it to 22C in the garden this
afternoon.

Although I was outside for much of the day I
didn't see the Swifts until this evening, first while we were at son Simon's
home, several miles away, and again when we got home at around 8pm. As soon
as we got back to the house I got my ladder out and removed the wooden
blocks that I had put into the Swift nestboxes (to prevent entry by
Starlings). It's interesting to see that also today, Swifts have been
reported for the first time in various parts of the UK, including Bristol,
Belfast, Skipton (Yorkshire), and Cambridge, as well as places in France,
Belgium, Holland and Germany. Now I'll be looking out for the House
Martins to arrive.

For
much of the day, Sheila and I have been working on our caravan which hasn't
moved since 2006. I had already washed it yesterday and as a result my trainers
were wet, so this
morning I put them on top of a water butt to dry in the sunshine. Around
lunchtime I spotted a queen wasp resting on one of the trainers.

It was still there at the end of the
afternoon, and tonight it has moved to the inside of the trainer! I will be
checking them carefully before using them tomorrow morning!

'Our' Blackbird seems to have abandoned
another nest, and today she has been busy building what is at least her
third nest so far, and she has chosen to return to our Ivy tree, site of her
first attempt.

This time she is building the nest lower
down, when the Ivy is thicker, so it may be more hidden than the first nest
was. Her second nest had been in the conifers beyond the end of our garden.

The male catkins on our Birch tree started to
release pollen some five days ago, but it was only yesterday that I spotted
the first female flowers making their appearance, and today there are more
opening up.

While the male catkins droop from the end
(terminal) buds of the branches, the female catkins are erect and appear as
side shoots.

When you look closely you can see the white
and pink coloured stigmas that catch the wind-borne pollen.

I was disappointed that after seeing several
butterfly species over the last week, today's sunshine brought us just two
Small Whites, neither of which landed here. And the only ladybird seen was
another Harlequin!

27 April - After yesterday's good
weather, today had to be a disappointment, cloudy and bright early on but
then turning dark with a period of rain and distant thunder. It brightened
again, though still cloudy, in the afternoon and the temperature only
reached around 16C, which felt quite cool after yesterday.

I needed to use my trainers this morning and
when I went to remove the wasp it was dead - strange. I hope my trainer
wasn't to blame! Seriously, when I moved the trainers under cover last night
I did notice a small spider running about on the shoe. I wonder if that
could be the culprit? There was no sign of the spider this morning.

At the end of the afternoon I spent a while
outside looking out for Swifts again, and was able to get photographic
confirmation this time, at least of the presence of one bird - I could
actually see two. They were not flying low, and only appeared occasionally
over the hour that I watched.

I'm also sure that I caught a glimpse of a
House Martin, but I need to confirm that.

While I watched a trio of noisy crows passed
by several times, and on one occasion I was able to capture this partial
sequence as two of them played a game of 'tag'.